Friday 7 September 2012 06.22 EDT
First published on Friday 7 September 2012 06.22 EDT

Recent media reports revealed that the UK has done considerably less than it should and could have done to locate, freeze and facilitate repatriation of assets stolen by former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his entourage.

This is not for lack of opportunity. Indeed, it seems that with little effort journalists were able to identify and locate valuable real estate and other assets belonging to members of the former regime.

They even found that one of Mubarak's inner circle was allowed to register a new business despite being on the UK Treasury sanctions list. Assuming that the specialist public institutions in the UK have similar if not better tools at hand for investigating such dealings, this tells us something about the true level of political will in the UK in this matter.

Some countries have acted much faster and more vigorously, in particular Switzerland, which froze Mubarak assets within just half an hour of his resignation, has publicly communicated this and is actively engaged with the Egyptian authorities to line up necessary mutual legal assistance.

On the other hand, the situation in other likely hiding places of stolen assets from Egypt and other Arab spring countries remains murky. For example, the EU and Canada have adopted comprehensive sanctions lists on the freezing of assets associated with former Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, but little is known about what was done to implement these lists.

The US, to our knowledge, has not yet frozen any assets associated with Mubarak, or at least has not publicly communicated this. Middle-Eastern countries, where the bulk of assets stolen from Arab pring countries is suspected, are faring far from better.

What is to blame for this obviously wilful negligence? Accusations have been voiced that the UK is protecting its banking industry by applying its regulations loosely and turning a blind eye – a criticism that Switzerland has also known for many years. The same must be suspected of other countries that are likely to have hosted illegally acquired fortunes from Arab spring countries and are now dragging their feet when it comes to co-operating with the new governments in repatriating those funds.

Another question in this context is why banks only ever find those monies, or realise that they may be of suspicious origin, after foreign leaders have fallen from grace. Certainly, complex corporate structures often make detecting these assets difficult and it is therefore unlikely that all the assets stolen by Mubarak, Ben Ali, etc, will ever be found. But those bank accounts with multi-digit balances that have been found with relative ease after these leaders were toppled should have triggered more than a few raised eyebrows much earlier.

How much longer will we let banks get away with this sloppy behaviour? Remember that Mubarak, Ben Ali and the likes have been groomed as strategic allies by the leaders of all the above-mentioned countries for years, and they only became personae non gratae when it was clear that the people in the streets of north Africa were going to win the battle and that domestically, it would be politically unwise to continue siding with these allies.

When we see this and we see how ultimately justice and the law continue to be governed by domestic and international politics. I suspect that banks will not be feeling more heat anytime soon, or only when it is politically opportune.

Why should we care? Because corruption kills. Misappropriation of public funds steals money that is so badly needed to establish and maintain vital public services such as emergency health clinics or clean sanitary infrastructure. Corruption steals money where it is needed to build schools and provide the next generation with choices. And, finally, corruption destroys business competition which in turn hampers economic development.

To overcome these developmental hurdles, our countries give more or less generously in the form of development assistance. But unless we achieve true and sincere policy coherence of key dossiers, namely coherence of foreign affairs, development aid and business and foreign trade policies, unless those same countries that provide aid stop acting as safe havens for political leaders and their stolen funds, the stories of Mubarak and Ben Ali will repeat themselves over and over and over again.